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Francis Poulenc and Surrealism Francis Poulenc and Surrealism

Ginger Minneman Wright State University - Main Campus

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Ginger Minneman

Final Project Essay

MA in Humanities candidate

Francis Poulenc and Surrealism

I. Introduction

While it is true that surrealism was first and foremost a literary movement with strong

ties to the world of art, and not usually applied to musicians, I believe the composer Francis

Poulenc was so strongly influenced by this movement, that he could be considered a surrealist, in

the same way that Debussy is regarded as an impressionist and Schönberg an expressionist;

especially given that the artistic movement in the other two cases is a loose fit at best and does

not apply to the entirety of their output. In this essay, which served as the basis for my lecture

recital, I will examine some of the basic ideals of surrealism and show how Francis Poulenc

embodies and embraces surrealist ideals in his persona, his music, his choice of texts and his

compositional methods, or lack thereof. I will explore Poulenc’s relationship with surrealism by

focusing on two of his song cycles, Banalités and Le Travail du Peintre, and his relationship to

their respective poets, Guillaume Apollinaire and Paul Éluard, both of whom were surrealists and

had profound impact on Poulenc. I will also look at the events surrounding the composition of

his choral work, Litanies à la Vierge Noire from a surrealist perspective.

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II. Surrealism

Surrealism was a movement that evolved in the fertile art and literary world of Paris in

the early twentieth century, though it’s scope was not confined to that time and place. The

publishing of André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924 codified the movement. As is

often the case with philosophical and literary movements, there is no clear line of demarcation

where one philosophy ends and another begins. Inevitably, schools of thought are born out of the

philosophies that preceded them, whether they are similar or radically different. This is certainly

true of surrealism. While on the surface it may appear quite different from nineteenth century

poetry, and in many ways it is, you can look carefully and see how surrealism evolved from and

was an outgrowth of nineteenth century romanticism.

We understand that romanticism was a reaction against the emotionally sterile

environment created by the Enlightenment and rationalism. The romantics looked beyond the

confines of the natural world to the inner world of the imagination. They viewed the outer world

through the imaginative and emotional lens of the inner world, imbuing it with mystery, fantasy

and wonder. Surrealism is a continuation of this reaction, but takes a new direction in a world

that has been ravaged by war and disease. Over the course of the 19th century and into the 20th

century, many of the mysteries that the romanticists revered had been explained away by science.

Surrealism was a continued search for the mysterious in a culture where there was little that had

not been explained away. Such things as the horrors of war and the flu epidemic left many

feeling that evolution and rationalism had failed them. The world they were experiencing did not

seem to make sense nor did it seem to be on an upward trajectory. In the wake of World War I,

as people became distrustful of those in authority, they turned inward for answers. Heavily

influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud, the surrealists sought to release the imagination from

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the confines of the material world and instead to plumb the depths of dreams and the

subconscious. Breton writes in his manifesto, “I believe in the future resolution of these two

states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a

surreality, if one may so speak (Breton 14).”

One technique of surrealists was that of automatic writing. In this practice, the writer

attempts to write down whatever bubbles up from the subconscious and resists any urge to filter

or edit their thoughts or force them to conform to any accepted form. This form of writing was

practiced at times by Apollinaire, the forefather of the surrealist movement, as well as by the

group of poets that were later more specifically identified as surrealists by Breton. This raw

material that was mined from the subconscious was often reworked and not always presumed to

be in its finished form at conception.

The surrealists believed their poetry had incredible power, a mystical quality found not

necessarily in the words themselves but in the power of those words used in illogical ways to

conjure images in the imagination that would facilitate what Breton calls the “pointe sublime”. It

is at this point sublime that man becomes whole, where all the disparate elements within him

fuse into oneness. For the surrealists, poetic experience was the vehicle for this transformative

experience.

The surrealist aim could be loosely defined as the intention of transforming (with all the

deliberately alchemical force which attaches to the latter verb) sets of static polar

contraries into potentially powerful juxtapositions, intellectually uncomfortable to

contemplate, shocking to the normal perception in their intense irrationality (Caws 14-

15).

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In her book entitled Surrealism, Anna Balakian gives this eloquent description of

the philosophical foundation and purpose of the surrealist movement:

The objective of surrealism was the infinite expansion of reality as a substitute for the

previously accepted dichotomy between the real and the imaginary. Acknowledging the

human need for metaphysical release, the surrealists believed that through the exploration

of the psyche, through the cultivation of the miracles of objective chance, through the

mystique of eroticism, through the diverting of objects from their familiar functions or

surroundings, through a more cosmic perspective of life on this earth, and finally through

the alchemy of language that would learn to express this more dynamic reality, man

might be able to satisfy his thirst for the absolute within the confines of his counted

number of heartbeats. (14)

Since feminism was rapidly gaining in popularity during the Modernist period, it is

interesting to note the surrealist attitude toward women was one of reverence. The surrealists

believed that the uniting of male and female was a necessary part of the transformative

experience (Balakian 2-3). Woman in surrealist poetry is symbolic of all women. It is in this

union with woman that man is keenly aware of his individuality while at the same time

completely identified with the woman. They are separate, but in a complete state of oneness

(Caws 164-166).

The surrealist movement was not closely associated with music, but in addition to

poetry was expressed in art and film. Some artists closely associated with the movement were

Picasso, Salvador Dali, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Frida Kahlo, Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp,

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Man Ray, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Klee and Max Ernst. Poets associated with the movement

include André Breton, Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, Max Jacob, Tristan Tzara, Jean Cocteau,

Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Desnos, Pierre Reverdy, Charles Baudelaire and Guillaume Apollinaire.

Some of these figures were artists as well as poets. Most surrealists distanced themselves from

music, seeing it as an elitist art form. However, Paul Éluard was an exception, he was more open

to music and did whole-heartedly embrace the music of Francis Poulenc. It is interesting to note

that the tentacles of surrealism reach in to the late twentieth century as well as into other parts of

the world as evidenced in the poetry of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) and Mexican

poet, Octavio Paz (1914-1998).

III. Poulenc

Francis Poulenc, who lived from 1899 until 1963, was literally in the midst of the artists,

poets and the movement that was surrealism. He was born to a wealthy family in Paris, France

where he grew up; and where he had both the opportunity and means to indulge in a variety of

experiences that shaped his unique aesthetic. His very Parisian mother, herself a lover of the arts

and his more modest and devoutly catholic father both had profound influence on Poulenc, as did

his uncle who exposed him to the delights of popular music in cabaret clubs and music halls. All

of these influences manifest themselves in the two extremes that we see in Poulenc and his

music, which some have described as the sacred and the profane.

As a teenager, Poulenc studied piano with famed pianist Ricardo Viñes. He was well

connected and helped Poulenc and his music find their to Parisian society. Poulenc owed much

of his success to Viñes (Bernac 23). Poulenc’s mother had hoped that he would study

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composition at the Paris Conservatory, but the outbreak of World War I necessitated that he

become a soldier instead of a student. After the war he was considered too old for the Paris

Conservatory, hence he was never formally trained as a composer, a fact that seems fortuitous in

hindsight. Though he did not attend the conservatory, he did eventually study privately with

Charles Koechlin, who fortunately was very open-minded and didn’t try to force Poulenc to

adhere to certain systems of composition (Buckland and Chimènes 15). Poulenc was a member

of the group of composers known as Les Six. Even though he had less training than other

members of the group, Poulenc’s star has continued to rise while the music of the other members

of Les Six is either barely memorable or forgotten altogether. None of them left them has

continued to impact the world like Poulenc. (This is much the same scenario that surrounded

Schubert several decades before.) He was not as educated or highly regarded as some of his

peers, but their music is largely forgotten, while he has become a seminole figure on the

landscape of music history, especially in the genre of Art Song.

Poulenc’s dear childhood friend, Raymonde Linossier was responsible for introducing

him to literary circles at the fashionable bookstore, La Maison des Amis des Livres, owned by

her friend Adrienne Monnier. It was through frequenting this bookstore, which was a gathering

place for creative intellectuals that Poulenc met Paul Valéry, Léon-Paul Fargue, André Breton,

Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard and many others. He considered himself a literary man, much in the

spirit of Claude Debussy. But Debussy and Poulenc were quite different composers as noted by

Bernac in Poulenc, The Man and His Music:

When Debussy wrote, ‘Music must humbly seek to give pleasure’, our thoughts turn to

the music of Poulenc with its sonorous sensuousness, its subtle harmonies, the flexibility

of its modulations and the play of the resulting colours, to the beauty and charm of its

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melodic lines. It can be that the art of our greatest musicians is an art of suggestion.

Poulenc, with his great sensibility, undoubtedly excelled in the creation of a poetic

climate (36).

It was in La Maison des Amis des Livres where he first encountered Guillaume

Apollinaire reading some of his poetry aloud, a first impression that Poulenc never forgot. He

considered Apollinaire and Paul Éluard to be the greatest influences on his life, especially

Éluard; and in his song compositions he preferred the texts of Éluard and Apollinaire above all

others. In fact, he is quoted as saying: “If on my tomb were inscribed: here lies Francis Poulenc,

the musician of Apollinaire and Éluard, I would consider this to be my finest title to fame

(Bernac 50).”

IV. Poulenc and the Poets

While Poulenc’s friendship with Éluard lasted decades, until our Éluard’s death in 1952, his

relationship with Apollinaire was very brief in comparison, partly due to the difference in their

ages, but also because Apollinaire’s life was cut short, due to injuries he sustained in WWI.

Poulenc was only 18 when Apollinaire died, but his influence on the young Poulenc was

profound and would be a guiding force throughout his life. Poulenc believed that in order to

adequately compose a song, he must know and understand the poet. This is why he only set

poems that were written by poets whom he knew personally, or had at least met. It was

imperative that he was able to hear the voice of the poet internally and bring out the subtleties

and nuances in their unique delivery style. This is why, when he intended to compose songs

specifically for the female voice, he would choose the poetry of a female poet, like that of his

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friend Louise de Vilmorin found in the cycle Fiancailles Pour Rire, FP 101. In the case of

Apollinaire, he is reported to have had a low pitched speaking voice and would read his poetry in

an intoned, chant-like style, which one can hear in the melodic lines of the first set of Apollinaire

songs that Poulenc composed in 1919, Le Bestiaire ou le Cortège d’Orphée. The set employs

eight poems from a book of animal poems by Apollinaire of the same title. Raoul Dufy, using the

medieval technique of hand-printed woodcuts, illustrated the book. Given Poulenc’s love of art,

he was doubtless inspired by the images as well as the poetry. Upon hearing Poulenc’s Le

Bestiaire ou le Cortège d’Orphée performed, Marie Laurencin, artist and romantic companion of

Apollinaire, wrote to Poulenc and remarked, “Ever since my return, I have been humming, as

best I can, your Bestiare, and you cannot imagine… how well you captured the nostalgia and the

singability of these admirable quatrains. And what really moves me is that one hears in your

music the voice of Guillaume Apollinaire reciting these poems (Daniel 253).” After composing

this first set of songs on Apollinaire texts, Poulenc claimed to feel a metaphysical connection to

and understanding of the poet; to whom he would return many more times for inspiration and

whose writing was the basis for some of his most significant works, including the opera Les

Mamelles de Tirésias, FP 125. I would suggest that this psychic connection is a manifestation of

surrealist ideology in Poulenc’s creative process.

V. Apollinaire and Banalites

One of Poulenc’s most important and popular song cycles is Banalités, FP 107, a setting

of 5 texts by Guillaume Apollinaire, 4 poems and one excerpt from a prose work entitled

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Onirocritque. The excerpt, Chanson D’Orkenise, was indeed a song within the prose work. The

content of this set of songs is:

Banalités, FP.107, Cing Mélodies Sur de Poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire

I. Chanson D’Orkenise

II. Hôtel

III. Fagnes des Wallonie

IV. Voyage a Paris

V. Sanglots

Banalités is not a song “cycle” in the truest form of the word, but more accurately a

collection or set, intended to be performed together in a particular order, but with no thematic

connection. Each of these songs can just as easily be performed individually as they are not part

of a larger narrative. He selected the texts and composed the work in the fall of 1940. It is one of

his most popular works, with good reason. These songs are more traditionally constructed and

have a lightness of style, except for the final song, Sanglots. The first song in the cycle, Chanson

D’Orkenise, was first conceived by Poulenc while a serving as a soldier for the second time,

albeit briefly, during World War II. He claims that he began singing the opening lines of the

song while marching to Cahors. Ultimately he opted to compose it the style of a folk song rather

than a march. Personally, I think you can still hear the march. Though he has conceived it as folk

song, the blurred, flourish of open fourths and fifths in the introduction combined with a pedal

tone, make it feel more a part of a fantasy world than a familiar one. The constant motion in the

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accompaniment conveys a sense of movement throughout the piece leading to the ominous

closing of the gates. The opening line of the piano part under the vocal line ascends in thirds in

way that sounds like an untrained child at play on the keys. It seems as if it is going keep

ascending and float away, but the pedal tone is at once a stabilizing force, as well as a constant

source of dissonant bite and rhythmic propulsion.

Example 1. Chanson D’Orkenise, Banalites, Francis Poulenc, FP 107, 1941

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You can see in the example 1 that the pedal tone, which is on the bottom staff, continues

for the first twelve measures of the song. The flourish of open fourths and fifths is found in the

third and fourth measures, establishing the atmospheric yet ever driving piano part over which a

simple melody sits. It is the piano part that is the source of interest and intensity. The ascending

thirds begin in measure five and continue for eight full measures. This example gives a glimpse

of the perpetual motion of the song, but the piano part does open up into some thicker and

harmonically lush chords eventually. However, there is nothing of a sustained nature in the piano

part. It pulses and moves continuously, relentlessly to the end. There isn’t a single beat in a

single measure that doesn’t have the left hand of the piano part actively pulsing in quarter notes

or pairs of eighth notes as seen in the example.

One of the expressions used in the text of the song refers to the guards of the city knitting

superbly, which is a figure of speech that is similar to our expression, “being tied up in knots”.

There is a lot to overcome when translating poetry of this style. First, it is not always intended to

make sense; ambiguity is one of its more interesting qualities. It allows the hearer or reader to

engage their imaginations and create their own meaning. This nonsensical quality is part of what

makes it surreal. Secondly, there are sometimes hidden meanings or colloquial expressions that

we may mistakenly take at face value. What we can see clearly is the word play, alliteration and

other delicious linguistic effects that give them aesthetic appeal, apart from the translation, as in

the poem from the third song, “Fagnes de Wallonie”. If you look at the final lines of the poem

you will see several words that either rhyme or sound the same, creating a bit of a tongue twister

as well as obscuring the meaning, especially when taken into consideration that final consonants

are not pronounced in French making words like “mord” and “mort” sound exactly the same

when spoken or sung.

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Fagnes de Wallonie

Tant de tristesses plénières Prirent mon cœur aux fagnes désolées Quand las j'ai reposé dans les sapinières Le poids des kilomètres pendant que râlait Le vent d'ouest J'avais quitté le joli bois Les écureuils y sont restés Ma pipe essayait de faire des nuages Au ciel

Qui restait pur obstinément Je n'ai confié aucun secret sinon une chanson énigmatique Aux tourbières humides Les bruyères fleurant le miel Attiraient les abeilles Et mes pieds endoloris Foulaient les myrtilles et les airelles Tendrement mariée

Nord Nord La vie s'y tord En arbres forts Et tors La vie y mord La mort A belles dents Quand bruit le vent Poulenc said of Voyage a Paris, “When one knows me, it seems quite natural that I

should open my mouth like a carp to snap up the deliciously stupid lines of ‘Voyage a Paris.’ For

me Paris often brings tears to my eyes and music to my ears. ‘Hotel,’ the second song in the

cycle, is still Paris; a room in Montparnasse (Schmidt 270).” It is little wonder that Poulenc was

inspired by these seemingly trivial texts. During the fall of 1940, when he was composing these

songs, he and his family had just returned to their beloved Paris after having taken refuge in the

country during World War II. He dressed these two very Parisian texts in musical settings that

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are at once simple and wonderful. For “Voyage a Paris,” he composes one of his signature

waltzes; and for “Hotel” a tune that sounds like torch song a la Édith Piaf.

Example 2. Sanglots, Banalites, Francis Poulenc, FP 107, 1941

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As you can see in example 2, Poulenc begins this fifth song in the set, Sanglots, very

similarly to the first song, Chanson D’Orkenese, with a pedal tone in the left hand of the piano

part and open fourths and fifths for intervals. This time, instead of the quick ascending thirds of

Chanson D’Orkenese, we have a slow descending line, rhythmically and harmonically similar,

but so different in feel. This example is from the third page of the score, and shows some of the

intense moments of the song. Up until this point the song has been very small and quiet in the

key of F# minor, then modulates to Eb minor. As we enter this page, the intensity start to build

and climaxes on the third system with dramatic effect of the voice descending by half steps on a

triplet rhythm. He takes us through a series of chords and keys the first of which is a benign

sounding E major chord, though it doesn’t look like one on the surface. Then we begin what

feels like a free-fall in the vocal line, descending by a series of seven half steps with an unstable

harmonic progression underneath it in the piano part. The lowest voice is in piano part climbs as

the voice falls, creating tension. The tension is heightened by the lack of a feeling of tonal center

as many of the chords are constructed with the third on the bottom and by the insertion of some

fully and partially diminished. The affect created here is nothing short of terrifying and thrilling.

At the end of the progression when the voice and the piano are brought together in a tender and

vulnerable moment, he unexpectedly flings the voice back up into the high range to underscore

the word “joyeux,” meaning joy. There is such turbulence and pathos contained in these twelve

measures, even a sense of horror, and incredible beauty and transcendence. There is more drama

and emotion and more harmonic interest and variety on this page than one sometimes finds in an

entire song. In many ways Poulenc’s setting of this text, as well as the poem itself, evoke the

spirit of Apollinaire - wounded and changed by the experience of war, having a sense of longing

for the unspoiled past and a fear of the future, while trying to hold onto hope and joy, albeit with

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a broken heart. He is man who has been awakened to the painful truth that his is the experience

of every man.

An interesting technique used by Apollinaire in the poem is the intertwining of two

different poems. Toward the end of the poem, it actually appears we are encountering two

different poems, or at least two different voices within the poem. Pierre Bernac points this out in

the book Francis Poulenc: The Man and His Songs. Poulenc and baritone, Bernac were close

friends and collaborated in many performances and in other ways, with Bernac serving as a

sounding board for many of Poulenc’s ideas. Many of Poulenc’s songs were composed expressly

for Bernac and/or were premiered by him with Poulenc himself at the piano. Therefore, the

writings and recordings of Bernac are considered authoritative with regard to Poulenc’s

compositions. More than any other person, he exactly what the composer was attempting to

accomplish and what he would have wanted with regard to performance practice. Of the song

Sanglots, Bernac shares this insight,

It must be conceded that the poem is not always easy to understand. But Poulenc had such

feeling for this poetry that, as always, his music clarifies the text, giving it its form, it rhythm,

it intensity, and the temperatures should have no difficulty in adopting his conception.

Nevertheless I believe it necessary to reproduce here the arrangement of the poem on the

page as in the literary edition. I have added, for sake of greater clarification, some

parentheses for certain recessed lines, because there are, in a way, two poems in one. Without

the lines in parentheses the poem is much easier to understand, and it will be realized that the

lines in parentheses are connected with each other. Despite Poulenc’s great ability, it is

without doubt difficult to bring out all the points.

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Sanglots Notre amour est réglé par les calmes étoiles Or nous savons qu'en nous beaucoup d'hommes respirent Qui vinrent de trés loin et sont un sous nos fronts C'est la chanson des rêveurs Qui s'étaient arraché le coeur Et le portaient dans la main droite Souviens-t'en cher orgueil de tous ces souvenirs Des marins qui chantaient comme des conquérants. Des gouffres de Thulé des tendres cieux d'Ophir Des malades maudits de ceux qui fuient leur ombre Et du retour joyeux des heureux émigrants De ce coeur il coulait du sang Et le rêveur allait pensant À sa blessure délicate Tu ne briseras pas la chaîne de ces causes Et douloureuse et nous disait Qui sont les effets d'autres causes Mon pauvre coeur mon coeur brisé Pareil au coeur de tous les hommes Voici nos mains que la vie fit esclaves Est mort d'amour ou c'est tout comme Est mort d'amour et le voici. Ainsi vont toutes choses Arrachez donc le vôtre aussi Et rien ne sera libre jusq'à la fin des temps Laissons tout aux morts Et cachons nos sanglots

Sobs Our love is ordered by the calm stars Now we know that in us many men have their being Who came from very far away and are under our brows It is the song of the dreamers Who tore out their heart And carried it in the right hand (Remember the dear pride all these memories Of the sailors who sang like conquerors Of the chasms of Thule of the gentle skies of Ophir Of the cursed sick people of those who fled form their shadow And the joyous return of happy emigrants) This heart ran with blood And the dreamer went on thinking Of his wound delicate (You will not break the chain of these causes) And painful and said to us (Which are the effects of other causes) My poor heart my broken heart Resembling the heart of all men (here here are our hands that life enslaved) Has died of love or so it seems Has died of love and here it is Such is the way of all things Tear out yours also (And nothing will be free until the end of time) Let us leave all to the dead And hide our sobs

Fig. 2. Chanson D’Orkenise, Banalites, Francis Poulenc, FP 107, 1941

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VI. Rocamadour and Litanies à la Vierge Noire

A turning point in Poulenc’s life and music was the death of his beloved friend Pierre-

Octave Ferroud. Upon hearing of Ferroud’s death, the grief stricken Poulenc asked to be taken to

Rocamadour, a place of pilgrimage that he’d heard about all his life from his father. In this

ancient, rustic environment, his faith was rekindled and he was inspired to write his Litanies à la

Vierge Noire, based on a text he found on the back of card bearing the image of the Black Virgin

while in the chapel at Rocamadour. “The Litanies, remain one of Poulenc’s most compelling

works. Completely unpretentious in conception, Litanies have a power and directness

unparalleled in his oeuvre.” (Schmidt 233) While on the surface, this experience represents a

point of divergence from surrealist philosophy, inasmuch as they shunned organized religion,

this was a mystical experience, which does not seem so far afield of surrealism. Though the

Litanies were not based on surrealist poetry, they were composed spontaneously in response to

grief and incorporated primitive elements along with modern, dissonant harmonies. The object of

inspiration was an ancient statue, not dissimilar to the primitive masks that inspired the works of

Picasso. This fusion of the very ancient and the very modern creates an aura of mysticism within

the work. In the Litanies à la Vierge Noire, the unexpected and unsettling juxtaposition of sparse,

chant-inspired melodies with very modern, dissonant harmonies, while possessing a religious

context, presents a very surreal aesthetic, not unlike the many surrealist paintings by Dali with

sacred subject matter such as Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus). Captivated by this medieval

church that is carved into the façade of a rocky mountain, a place of pilgrimage from ancient

times, and out of the fertile swamp of grief, Poulenc has an experience that is not uncommon; a

mystical experience that results in creative expression.

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Fig.1. Salvador Dali. Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus). 1954. Artstor, library-artstor org.ezproxy.libraries.wright.edu/asset/AWSS35953_35953_31707706

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VII. Éluard and Le Travail Du Peintre

After meeting at Adrienne Monnier’s bookstore Poulenc and Éluard became very close, life-

long friends. Poulenc earned high praise from Éluard with his settings of Éluard’s poems. He set

thirty four of Éluards poems to music as well as several choral works including Figure Humaine,

one of his most significant compositions. Paul Éluard confessed that it was only after Poulenc set

his poems to music that he truly understood them. He believed that Poulenc understood his

poems better than he understood them himself. He acknowledges this in these lines from a poem

that wrote for his friend Poulenc:

Francis I did not listen to myself Francis I owe it to you that I hear myself On a white pathway In an immense countryside Where light strengthens itself

At night there are no longer any roots The shadow is behind themirrors Francis we dream of expanse As a child of endless games In a starry countryside which only reflects youth (Bernac 92)

It would be impossible to overstate the mutual admiration that these two men shared for

one another. Clearly, Poulenc was irresistibly drawn to the poetry of Éluard , while the deep and

seemingly intuitive understanding that Poulenc possessed of him and his poetry mesmerized

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Éluard. It is as though, like twins they spoke a special language and understood one another like

no one else could.

Le Travail du Peintre, was Poulenc’s penultimate song cycle before his death of heart

failure in 1963. The cycle was composed in 1960 and for the text he employed seven of Éluard’s

poems taken from a published collection entitled Voir. He had spoken to Éluard about the project

several years earlier, before Éluard’s death in 1952. Poulenc strongly identified with the world of

art; and both he and Éluard knew most of the painters in the set personally. While Poulenc was a

huge fan of Matisse and wanted to end the cycle with him, Éluard did not sure this affinity and

never came through with a poem about Matisse. The names of the songs and hence the artists are

listed below:

Le Travail Du Peintre, FP 161, Sept Mélodies Sur des Poèmes de Paul Éluard

I. Pablo Picasso

II. Marc Chagall

III. Georges Braque

IV. Juan Gris

V. Paul Klee

VI. Joan Miró

VII. Jacques Villon

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In this cycle Poulenc displays his mature style. The poetry of Éluard brings out an

abstractness and a denseness in his compositional style that is in contrast to the lightness of the

Apollinaire songs. In describing his song cycle Le Travail du Peintre, Poulenc said that he

himself was attempting to paint with music. Incidentally, the cover of the published version of

the cycle was painted by their mutual friend Picasso. Each song attempts to bring the poem and

thus the artist to life. Within the songs you can hear the bravura of Picasso, whimsy of Chagall

and the joy of Miró. In the song construction you will hear several of Poulenc’s characteristic

compositional styles such as abrupt key changes, atmospheric harmonies, simple child-like

motifs, short phrases with no connective tissue, very little repeated material and occasional but

brief sentimental indulgences all knit together in a cohesive and aesthetically interesting and

appealing way, albeit with a more sophisticated palette than Banalités.

Minneman 22

Example 3. Joan Miro, Le Travail du Peintres, Francis Poulenc, FP 161, 1957

Minneman 23

In example 3 from song VI. Joan Miró, we see a great example of one of Poulenc’s

signature composition techniques, that of collage. This song rarely has a moment when the it

seems to settle into a key or any other predictable patterns The previous page of the score has the

piano part playing some dissonant chords in the key of A major, but the vocal line sitting on top

of it, looks and feels like it is in the key of E major. Immediately upon turning to this page we

are abruptly thrown in to a new key, and have a short melodic fragment that is unrelated to the

melodic material on the previous page. Though we are thrown into a new key, which appears to

be Db major we are unsettled from that in the following measure and thrown abruptly back into

Db major for a measure of five beats that ascends dramatically only to a sudden stop. We switch

gears once again, going from the pinnacle of the previous phrase at a fortissimo dynamic to a

subito piano, now back in a 3/4 meter and into yet another key. I use the term key loosely,

because there are no key signatures and the harmonies are so dissonant, that it is difficult to

ascertain the key. One thing is obvious, at the bottom of the page the piano utilizes a whole tone

scale, further destabilizing the sense of tonal center. The top of the next page, which you cannot

see, he finally resolves into the key of A major. Since her rarely puts the root of the chord in the

bottom of the chord is always adding in dissonance, there is always a blurring of the key and an

unsettled quality. When you add to that short melodic fragments and abrupt changes, the effect is

thrilling, as if a beautiful road of surprises is constantly unfolding before you. Somehow he is

able to take all of this material that appears so chaotic and bring forth something that feels

cohesive and has aesthetic appeal.

Both Poulenc and Éluard were huge admirers of art, especially painting. Éluard acquired

quite a substantial collection of art over his lifetime, much of it was gifts from artists who were

his friends and with whom he collaborated. Many of those collaborations involved artists

Minneman 24

working as illustrators of his publications. He and Picasso collaborated on sixteen publications.

Poulenc also strongly identified with the world of art; a subject he was intensely passionate

about. He had a life-long love affair with painting, though he himself was not a painter. He loved

to visit museums and wrote detailed accounts in his diary of what he had seen and his responses

to those encounters. He counted among his good friends Max Jacob and Jean Cocteau, both of

whom were involved in art and literature. In describing Le Travail du Peintre, Poulenc said that

he himself was attempting to paint with music (Buckland and Chimènes 1). He described his

work in artistic terms and said that a poem had to be visual in order to interest him. Éluard,

through the poems in Voir, brought together the worlds of art and poetry. To this, Poulenc added

the element of music. In this set of songs we get a real window into the world of surrealism by

encountering these three forms of creative expression in a single experience. Any performance of

these songs could be greatly enhanced by visually displaying images of some of the paintings of

the artists referenced in the songs.

Like the surrealist poets, Poulenc’s compositional style was very intuitive and

spontaneous. When asked by an interviewer about his rules and systems of composition and

source of inspiration. Poulenc responded: “My ‘rules’ are instinctive, I am not concerned with

the principles and I am proud of that; I have no system of writing (for me system means ‘tricks’);

and as for inspiration, it is so mysterious that it is wiser not to try to explain it.” (Bernac 37)

Does this not sound very much like the surrealist approach to writing poetry? In addition,

Poulenc always wrote the music as it came to him, he did not try to make it conform to any

predetermined forms or ideas. If a melody came to him and it happened to be in an incredibly

difficult key, he left it that key rather than transposing it to a key that was more user friendly.

Minneman 25

Not only was his method of composition surreal, but his materials were surreal as well.

His harmonic palette was as varied, colorful and unusual as any surrealist painting. Some of his

compositions have been compared to cubism because they contain abrupt changes and

suggestions of the familiar but interpreted in a new and strange way. He had a great melodic gift,

but could create atmospheres with his innovative use of harmony. Because Art Song was his

favorite genre, and surrealist poems were his favorite texts, a large part of his compositional

output is tied to surrealism. It is in song composition that he excels as he creates a wide variety

of emotional contexts from the profoundly serious to the humorous and even zany. He manages

to capture the spirit of the poem without overpowering it with the music. He achieves a perfect

fusion of word and music that is stamped with his own unique style, an amalgamation of many

influences.

I would suggest that not only was Poulenc’s method of composition surreal and his use of

materials surreal, but he was the embodiment of surrealism. He is often referred to as the man of

extremes. These extremes coexisted in him beautifully and at times did appear to unite. Many

people believe that his two operas represent the two extremes of Poulenc himself. Les Mamelles

de Tirésias based on a surrealist play by Apollinaire, represented the bawdy and profane side of

Poulenc. It is sometimes referred to as an opera burlesque and is musically evocative at times of

popular entertainment of the day. While watching the transformation of Thérèse to Tirésias and

of her husband to a woman is entertaining, there are obviously deeper issues beneath the humor

that lies on the surface, issues of gender roles and sexual ambiguity (Buckland and Chimènes

261).

The opera that represents the other extreme of Francis Poulenc is the very serious

Dialogues des Carmélites with the libretto by Georges Bernanos, which is the story of a group of

Minneman 26

Carmélite nuns who were beheaded during the French Revolution. In explaining what attracted

him to Bernanos libretto he said:

It was often the more spiritual side of Bernanos that attracted me. The story, admirable

though it is, and sadly true, naturally touched me greatly, but it was, for instance, the

transference of grace, the communion of saints, that made me want to write an opera. The

first scene I composed is perhaps the most dogmatic in that it depicts the initial interview

between the First Prioress and Blanche de la Force (Buckland and Chimènes 260).

Poulenc’s setting of Bernanos story strikes the perfect balance, capturing the seriousness and

gravity of the story, but highlighting the hopeful aspects of faith, love and grace - both divine

and human. There is a quiet strength and dignity that is maintained as the sisters endure their

ordeal. It is inspiring without being sentimental. There is a sense of profundity to the story that is

captured perfectly in the music, lending appropriate gravitas to the subject. This is yet another

example of religious subject matter, but it is not a work for religious or sacred purposes, similar

to what was referenced earlier with the Litanies à la Vierge Noire and the painting by Dalí.

While Francis Poulenc composed in many genres including ballet, opera, piano works,

orchestral works and chamber music, his absolute favorite genre was art song. He considered it a

very important art form and thought it should be taken seriously. Song was the perfect vehicle

for his many gifts. As a masterful pianist and an innovative composer, his compositions were

interesting, but what really made Poulenc a great song composer was his love of the surrealist

Minneman 27

poetry that he set to music and the sense of congruence and camaraderie that he had with the

poets themselves. Along with that love of poetry came that great care with which he set it. His

relationship with the poets that he set provided a knowing, an intimacy that infused these songs

with something extraordinary that is difficult to put into words. His songs in so many ways seem

to capture the spirit of the surrealist movement and of the times in general. You could say they

are like aural time capsules. They are appealing not only because they are masterfully set, but

because in them we find his generosity of spirit, his vulnerability and wit.

To those who would say that music cannot fit under the umbrella of surrealism because it

is too contrived, I would argue that it is no more contrived than painting. This is especially true if

the composer, as in the case of Francis Poulenc is rejecting traditional formal models of

compositional training and technique, and instead relying on his inspiration and intuition. To

those who would argue that music was an elitist art form at that time, I would argue that it was

no more elitist than were the visual arts. And like the visual artists, Poulenc had many ordinary,

unpretentious sources of inspiration for his melodies. To those who would say that Poulenc could

not be a surrealist because he was Catholic and surrealists shunned organized religion, I would

argue that his religious experience was not a mere association with the bourgeois morality of

organized religion (which we know in practice he rejected), but rather a quest for wholeness and

mystical experience. It was this drive for mystical experience, which is at the heart of surrealism,

that was also at the heart of Poulenc and his music, especially the vocal music and choral works

where his uncanny sense of understanding of surrealist poetry could shine. For that matter, I have

not uncovered anyone who is associated with surrealism that didn’t have some points of

departure from the movement, either partial or complete. Even Éluard himself eventually broke

with the movement.

Minneman 28

During the modernist period, there was no more important hotbed of creativity than Paris,

France. And no composer more perfectly captured the spirit of the day in Paris than Francis

Poulenc. His music is like a microcosm of modernist Europe expressed from a surrealist

perspective with a decidedly French sensibility and Parisian style. It does not appear that

Poulenc was self-consciously attempting to accomplish this feat; he was merely being himself, a

product of the times and the people he associated with, the product of war and inner conflict, of

progress and nostalgia, of cathedrals and cabarets. He embraced and embodied the surrealist

philosophy, was part of the inner circle of surrealists and set many surrealist texts to music and

approached composition similarly to how a surrealist poet approached writing. For all of these

reasons, Francis Poulenc is uniquely qualified to be called a surrealist composer.

Minneman 29

Works Cited

Balakian, Anna. Surrealism: The Road to the Absolute. 3rd. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Bernac, Pierre. Francis Poulenc: The Man and His Songs. Trans. Winifred Radford. New York: W.W.

Norton and Company Inc., 1977.

Breton, André. Manifestes du surréalisme. Trans. Richard and Lane, Helen R. Seaver. Vol. Vol. 182. Ann

Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969.

Buckland, Sidney and Chimenes Myriam. Francis Poulenc: Music, Art and Literature. Ed. Sidney and

Chimenes, Myriam Buckland. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999.

Caws, Mary Ann. The Poetry of Dada and Surrealism: Aragon, Breton, Tzara, Eluard and Desnos.

Princeton: Princeton university Press, 1970.

Poulenc, Francis. Banalites, Integrale des Melodies et Chansons Vol. 1 and Vol. 4, Salabert, 2013.

Low, Peter. "Far from Banal - Poulenc's Banalite." Journal of Singing Vol.69.No.3 (2013): 289.

Schmidt, Carl B. Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc. Hillsdale: Pendragon

Press, 2001.